IMD issues orange alert for city on Saturday

Mumbai braces for heavy rain as IMD issues orange alert for Saturday, with yellow alert on Friday. Temperatures drop as downpour expected to intensify.

Mumbai: Heavy rain is set to make a comeback in the city on Saturday with an orange alert predicting heavy to very heavy rains in isolated areas. A yellow alert is scheduled for Friday, indicating heavy rainfall.

HT Image

After the rush of rains on Monday, the downpour took a turn for the slow. “The off trough is still present, and we also expect the westerlies to strengthen,” said Sushma Nair, scientist at the IMD Mumbai. “Due to both reasons, we expect a spell of heavy rains between July 13 and 14. Then, rains may slow down slightly, but a yellow alert persists till Monday.”

Between 8:30am on Wednesday to Thursday, Colaba recorded 59mm of rainfall. Whereas, Santacruz recorded 19mm. In the same period, rain in the city was at 50.16mm — in the eastern suburbs at 27.01mm, and western suburbs at 55.95mm.

In the 12 hours till 8:30pm on Thursday, areas of Colaba, Malabar Hills, Grant Road and Reay Road had received the most rain, coming in at between 40 to 50mm. Many areas in the city saw rain in the 20 to 40 mm range, with the suburbs seeing some showers amounting to below 20mm.

Due to the rains, temperatures too took a dip, the maximum at both Colaba and Santacruz touched 28.6 degrees Celsius. The minimum at Colaba was 24 degrees Celsius, with Santacruz just a smidge higher at 24.2 degrees Celsius. Humidity rages between 90% and 92% respectively.